Scott Alexander, curated
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Quality
60
Strong
Claude Shift
40
Moderate
RWI
2
of 10

Summary

A 2017 health-policy post on Trump's potential FDA/NIH picks (Jim O'Neill, Balaji Srinivasan, John Ioannidis) as a possibly-unprecedented chance for a 'principled intelligent libertarian' at a bad bureaucracy. Lays out high-benefit/low-cost FDA reforms Scott favors: medical reciprocity with Europe (import their approved drugs, e.g. amisulpride), streamlined generic approval (to prevent Shkreli/Daraprim price hikes), banning pay-for-delay, and unblocking consumer diagnostics — plus O'Neill's more radical safety-but-not-efficacy proposal. Informed and characteristic FDA-reform advocacy, but topical and tied to appointments that didn't pan out.

Why this score

Quality 60 · Strong. Solid+ (60): well-informed, substantive policy advocacy (the reciprocity and generic-approval reforms are strong), but explicitly speculative about specific appointments and therefore dated/ephemeral.

Claude’s paradigm shift 40 · Moderate. Moderate (40): the reform menu is sensible but largely restates his standing FDA-reform positions.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. Minor-plus (2): FDA-reform advocacy that circulates in rationalist/econ policy discussion; this particular post is topical with limited durable footprint.